“The results show more young people are gaining the qualifications they need to be successful in their lives beyond school, reflecting the hard work of students, teachers and parents,” says Ms Parata.

The provisional roll-based data shows achievement in NCEA Level 2 has risen by one percentage point to 77.4 per cent compared to 2015. The results for the achievement of Level 2 for all 18 year olds will be released later in the year.

“One of the highlights of the provisional results is the significant increase in Māori achievement of NCEA Level 2, which has lifted by 2.9 percentage points to an impressive 73.5 per cent,” says Ms Parata.

“When we came into Government in 2008, almost half of all Māori students were not achieving NCEA Level 2. Since then, their achievement rates have risen significantly and the achievement gap has continued to shrink.”

Overall achievement of NCEA Level 3 has also increased by 0.7 percentage points to 63.4 per cent. For decile 1-3 schools, achievement of NCEA Level 3 has risen at an even faster rate, up 2.5 percentage points to 53.9 per cent.

“These results reflect our Government’s commitment to making sure that every child and young person in every school gets a great education, no matter what,” says Ms Parata.

Provisional data for NCEA Level 1 achievement is 0.2 percentage points lower than the final 2015 figure, while provisional data for University Entrance is 0.7 percentage points lower. Both are expected to increase before the results are finalised as schools update and provide late internally-assessed results, and students apply for review and reconsideration of their results.

Ms Parata says a preliminary assessment of results for students at schools impacted by the Kaikoura earthquake in November indicates that achievement is in line with national trends and past patterns of achievement.

“This is extremely heartening and shows that our system of assessment is both responsive and robust enough to minimise the impact on students of events which were completely beyond their control.”

Overall achievement of the NCEA Level 1 Mathematics Common Assessment Task (MCAT) is in line with expectations and higher than 2015, despite some criticism that it was more difficult than previous years.

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